Today (July 13) Sea & Sage Audubon hosted its summer pelagic trip on board the Ocean Institute's R/V Sea Explorer out of Dana Point. The boat was captained by Mike Bursk, who, along with the Ocean Institute staff, did an excellent job of getting us out to see the birds. Leaders on the trip were Jon Dunn, Brian Daniels, Jerry Tolman, Curtis Marantz, Robert McNab, and myself. We started out of Dana Point and headed south to the 150 fathom line and then followed that northwest paralleling the coast to the buoy off Newport Pier, then west out to the north edge of Lausen Sea Mount, south over the top of the sea mount, and then southeast back to Dana Point.

The clear highlight of the trip was the Blue-footed Booby that flew across the wake of the boat as it was going north up the coast along the 150 fathom line. I believe most of the participants on board got at least brief looks at the bird. Other notable sightings during the trip included the two continuing Black Oystercatchers on the Dana Point jetty, including one on a nest, a cooperative Scripps's Murrelet and Cassin's Auklet along the 150 fathom line, and about 15 Black Storm-Petrels out at the Lausen Sea Mount. Other seabirds on the trip included hundreds of Black-vented Shearwaters, dozens of Sooty Shearwaters and about ten Pink-footed Shearwaters, a Pomarine Jaeger and two Parasitic Jaegers. We also had close-up views of a Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins, several Ocean Sunfish, and a Blue Shark.

Tom Benson
San Bernardino, CA

PS For those participants waiting on eBird lists, I will share them sometime tomorrow.

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Gretchen Mavrovouniotis

Steve Brad from San Diego County got great pictures of some of our sightings during yesterday s Sea & Sage pelagic trip. He gave me permission to forward on a

Message 2 of 2
, Jul 14, 2013

Steve Brad from San Diego County got great pictures of some of our sightings during yesterday's Sea & Sage pelagic trip. He gave me permission to forward on a link to his photos: http://goo.gl/EJDgY . Enjoy!

Gretchen Mavrovouniotis
Irvine, CA

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